What secret did the Tongva, Charles Fletcher Lummis, the first USC
art students and turn-of-the-century vacationers on Mount Washington
all share? At the Los Angeles River, a marionette boy finds love
and mystery puppet Alfred Hitchcock deciphers unusual footprints.
The regulars at Tia Chucha’s café share space in a toy theater. Living legend René sets
a hippo to roller-skating. Nearby, the Puppets from Hell are firing
up the audience while Frank, the foam puppet, tries video dating.
Puppets, Puppets, Puppets!, a multicultural community puppet festival
sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective in Northeast Los Angeles,
will showcase a broad range of puppetry styles including engaging
European-style marionettes, Balinese shadow puppets, toy theaters
and the adult-themed performances of puppet cabaret.

The festival will consist of fourteen puppet shows hosted in galleries, parks, libraries, a converted theater and an outdoor amphitheater in Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Cypress Park. Jurors Alan Cook of the Conservatory of Puppetry Arts in Pasadena and Susan Simpson of the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts at the California Institute of the Arts selected puppeteers demonstrating a mix of styles and methods and representing both traditional puppetry arts and daring innovations. Alan Cook will also present a lecture on the underground history of puppetry in Los Angeles on June 10 at the Acorn Gallery in Highland Park.

Puppeteers include maRia Bodmann of Bali and Beyond; the Puppets and Players Little Theater; Beth
Peterson; Poli Marichal; Moodoo Puppets; Kyle Leeser; the Mystery Bird Puppet Show; Jamie Kim; Al
Guerrero and Puppets from Hell; April Totten; Marsian De Lellis; Miguel Olivares and Company; René
and his Artists; Scott Land Marionettes. Children may attend three workshops to learn shadow puppetry with Diana Big Mountain, simple marionette
making with Jacqueline Marks, and how to bring a book character to life with Johanna Smith. Adults and
children led by Beth Peterson will create an outdoor puppet pageant kicking off Lummis Day festivities
honoring Charles Lummis, local luminary and founder of the Southwest Museum, on June 3.Admission to all events and workshops is free.